Managing your interrupt rate as a tech lead, part 1: You get more of what you reward - Human Who Codes

I first became a tech lead in 2008, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. In my mind, I thought a tech lead was just like every other software engineer except they got to make the final call on tech decisions. The rest of the day, I reasoned, was just as I was used to with minimal changes. And so I was shocked when I found more and more of my day being taken up not with coding but with discussions. My calendar filled up with meetings to discuss the project with product managers, program managers, and engineering managers. In between, I was constantly being interrupted with questions from other engineers. Before I knew it, I didn’t seem to be getting much done.
2008 年，我第一次成为技术主管，当时我并不确定自己会期待什么。在我看来，技术主管和其他软件工程师没什么两样，只不过他们对技术决策有最终决定权。我的理由是，剩下的工作和我以前习惯的一样，变化很小。因此，当我发现一天中越来越多的时间不是用来编码，而是用来讨论时，我感到非常震惊。我的日程表被与产品经理、项目经理和工程经理讨论项目的会议填得满满的。在这期间，我不断被其他工程师的问题打断。不知不觉中，我似乎没有完成多少工作。

This is a common experience for new tech leads: The time management skills you had up to this point are no longer working. Instead, you’re left with a steady flurry of interruptions that keep you from doing your own work and very little guidance on how to handle them.
这是新技术带头人的常见经历：在这之前，你所掌握的时间管理技能已经失效。取而代之的是源源不断的干扰，让你无暇顾及自己的工作，而如何处理这些干扰的指导却少之又少。

While the role of tech lead differs from company to company, and sometimes even project to project, it is commonly made up of two types of tasks:
虽然技术负责人的角色因公司而异，有时甚至因项目而异，但通常由两类任务组成：

• Helping others - You’re expected to spend some of your time helping other engineers do their work. This might mean providing formal code or specification reviews, mentoring, checking on progress, answering questions, or any number of other things to help move the team forward.
  帮助他人--你需要花一些时间帮助其他工程师完成工作。这可能意味着提供正式的代码或规范审查、指导、检查进度、回答问题或其他任何有助于团队前进的事情。
• Working on your own - You’re also expected to have deliverables of your own. This might be code, technical specifications, presentations, project plans, or other work where you are the primary driver.
  独立工作 - 你还需要完成自己的工作。这可能是代码、技术规范、演示文稿、项目计划或其他工作，你是主要推动者。

Switching back and forth between working with others and on your own requires different time management skills, and this is often where tech leads struggle. They feel that it is their job to make sure people aren’t stuck and are always making progress, and, therefore, any time spent in a state where they can’t be reached has an automatic negative effect on productivity. They encourage team members to interrupt them at any point if they need help, frequently through real-time communication channels such as chat or instant message. The belief is that this fosters trust while ensuring that people are never blocked waiting for a response. While the thought process behind this approach is commendable, wanting to be there for the team, the end result is a chaotic day of work in which it’s difficult or impossible to make progress on personal deliverables.
在与他人合作和自己独立工作之间来回切换，需要不同的时间管理技巧，而这往往是技术主管的难处所在。他们认为，自己的工作就是确保大家不被卡住，并始终取得进展，因此，任何时间如果处于无法联系到他们的状态，都会自动对工作效率产生负面影响。他们鼓励团队成员在需要帮助时随时打断他们，经常通过聊天或即时信息等实时沟通渠道。他们认为，这样既能培养信任感，又能确保人们不会因为等待回复而受阻。虽然这种做法背后的想法值得称赞，即希望为团队提供帮助，但最终的结果却是一天的工作陷入混乱，很难甚至不可能在个人交付成果方面取得进展。

Given that it takes around 15 minutes to regain your focus once interrupted¹, it can be difficult for tech leads to get anything done when they exist in this interrupt-driven environment. So what is the solution?
鉴于一旦被打断，大约需要 15 分钟才能重新集中注意力 ¹ ，技术领导者在这种被打断的环境中很难完成任何工作。那么解决方案是什么呢？

Your team doesn’t actually need you that much
你的团队其实并不那么需要你

When I first became a tech lead, my team was using Yahoo Messenger to communicate. (For those unaware, Yahoo Messenger was a popular instant messaging program during the 2000s.) As a team that was distributed across not just different floors of a building but also in different buildings on campus and different countries, being able to quickly reach someone with a question was a significant part of our daily routine. As the tech lead, I was frequently bombarded with messages from one of the 24 front-end engineers on the team, not to mention back-end engineers, product managers, and engineering managers.
我刚担任技术主管时，我的团队使用雅虎 Messenger 进行沟通。(对于不了解的人来说，Yahoo Messenger 是 2000 年代流行的即时通讯程序）。我们的团队不仅分布在一栋楼的不同楼层，还分布在校园的不同楼宇和不同国家，因此能够快速联系到有问题的人是我们日常工作的重要组成部分。作为技术负责人，我经常被来自团队 24 名前端工程师之一的信息轰炸，更不用说后端工程师、产品经理和工程经理了。

My stress level got high enough that I met with my director to explore if I just wasn’t cut out for the job. I gave him an overview of how I was spending my day, and he very calmly gave me some advice.
我的压力越来越大，于是我去见了我的主管，探讨我是否不适合这份工作。我向他概述了我每天的工作情况，他非常冷静地给了我一些建议。

“In the beginning, you did a good job of teaching people to come to you when they needed help. Now, you need to teach them to solve problems themselves. Not every problem is a Nicholas problem. If it’s something only you can solve, then fine. Do it. But if it’s something someone else can solve, then let them solve it.”
"一开始，你做得很好，教会人们在需要帮助时来找你。现在，你需要教会他们自己解决问题。不是每个问题都是尼古拉斯的问题。如果只有你能解决，那很好。那就去做吧。但如果是别人能解决的问题，那就让他们去解决。"

It’s common for new tech leads to believe that they need to be involved in as many parts of their project as possible to succeed, and I fell into that category. In truth, the more parts of the project you’re involved in, the less functional your team is and the slower progress is made. Your teammates were hired (presumably) because they are also competent adults who can deliver quality software with or without you. Sometimes you will help them get unstuck, but most of the time they are capable of getting themselves unstuck.
新的技术负责人通常会认为，他们需要尽可能多地参与项目的各个部分才能取得成功，我就属于这种情况。事实上，你参与的项目部分越多，你的团队功能就越弱，进展就越慢。你的队友之所以受雇（大概），是因为他们也是有能力的成年人，无论有没有你，他们都能交付高质量的软件。有时你会帮助他们摆脱困境，但大多数情况下，他们有能力自己摆脱困境。

Does that mean people will get unstuck as quickly as they would if you helped them? Not at all, and that’s okay. Everyone is slow at figuring out a problem they haven’t solved before. Struggling through a problem helps to solidify the learning better than if the solution is given directly.² By swooping in and solving people’s problems for them, you’re actually robbing them of a more productive learning experience. Lessons learned through struggle are where growth happens.
这是否意味着人们会像你帮助他们那样迅速摆脱困境？完全不会，没关系。每个人在解决自己没有解决过的问题时都会比较慢。与直接给出解决方案相比，通过解决问题来巩固学习效果更好。 ² 如果你贸然替别人解决问题，实际上是剥夺了他们更有成效的学习体验。通过奋斗获得的经验是成长的源泉。

You get the interruptions you reward
你会得到你想要的干扰

While some interruptions occur when people are stuck, a lot of the interruptions are not because people are truly stuck but rather because people don’t want to spend the time to solve problems on their own. If they can send you a message and get a response in a couple of minutes, then why would they spend 15 minutes solving the problem themselves? That’s so inefficient! You both get a hit of dopamine as they get the answer they’re looking for, and you feel proud for helping someone else move forward. It’s an addictive behavior that isn’t serving either of you.
虽然有些中断是在人们陷入困境时发生的，但很多中断并不是因为人们真的陷入困境，而是因为人们不想花时间自己解决问题。如果他们给你发一条信息，几分钟就能得到回复，那他们为什么还要花 15 分钟自己解决问题呢？效率太低了！当他们得到他们想要的答案时，你们都会得到多巴胺的刺激，而你也会因为帮助别人前进而感到自豪。这是一种上瘾的行为，对你们双方都没有好处。

Back when I was at Yahoo, I noticed a frustrating pattern: People would send me a message that just said, “hey.” I’d respond to see what they wanted only to find that it was some mundane issue that they could handle on their own. The “hey” was another instant gratification behavior — it was a ping to see if I was available before bothering to tell me what they wanted.
当我还在雅虎工作时，我发现了一种令人沮丧的模式：人们会给我发消息，只说 "嘿"我会回复看看他们想要什么，结果却发现是一些他们可以自己处理的琐碎问题。"嘿 "是另一种即时满足的行为--在费心告诉我他们想要什么之前，先来看看我是否有空。

After going through this process for several weeks, I decided to try a different approach. When I received a message that just said, “hey” (or “hi” or similar), I would not respond immediately. I would wait to see if they followed up and explained what they needed, and if they didn’t, that was the end. And most of the time they never followed up, which told me two things: 1) Whatever they needed actually wasn’t that important and 2) They figured out how to deal with it on their own. And as a bonus, once I did this for a few weeks, the “hey” messages virtually disappeared.
在经历了几个星期的这个过程之后，我决定尝试一种不同的方法。当我收到一条只说 "嗨"（或 "你好 "或类似的话）的信息时，我不会立即回复。我会等着看他们是否跟进并解释他们需要什么，如果他们没有，那就到此为止。而大多数时候，他们都没有跟进，这告诉我两件事：1）他们需要的东西其实没那么重要；2）他们自己想办法解决了。另外，当我这样做了几个星期后，"嘿 "的信息就几乎消失了。

This was an important lesson for me: You get the interruptions you reward. Had I continued to respond to “hey” messages quickly, I would have continued to receive them. By not responding to them immediately, I had provided negative feedback that taught everyone not to bother. They wouldn’t get the dopamine hit they were looking for through this behavior. On the other hand, if they messaged me with a specific question, I would respond right away. So I was providing negative feedback for the interruptions I didn’t want and positive feedback from the interruptions I did want.
这对我来说是重要的一课：你会得到你奖励的打扰。如果我继续快速回复 "嘿 "的信息，我就会继续收到它们。如果我不立即回复，我就会提供负面反馈，让每个人都知道不要打扰他们。他们不会通过这种行为获得他们想要的多巴胺刺激。另一方面，如果他们给我发信息提出具体问题，我会立即回复。因此，我为我不想要的打扰提供了负面反馈，而为我想要的打扰提供了正面反馈。

To get your unwanted interruptions under control, just don’t respond immediately. Practice waiting an hour before responding to unwanted interruptions and you’ll gradually teach people not to expect instant gratification. (If an hour feels like too long, start with waiting 15 minutes before responding. Set a timer and don’t respond until it goes off. You’ll get used to it.)
要控制不受欢迎的打断，就不要立即回应。练习等待一个小时后再对不想要的打断做出回应，这样你就会逐渐教会人们不要期待立即得到满足。(如果觉得一小时太长，那就先等 15 分钟再回应。设置一个定时器，在定时器响之前不要回应。你会习惯的）。

Other interruptions you are encouraging
您鼓励的其他中断

Of course, “hey” messages aren’t the only type of interaction you might accidentally be encouraging. Whenever I hear someone complaining about an interaction with someone else, I often think of this question that CEO coach Jerry Colonna³ asks his clients:
当然，"嗨 "的信息并不是你可能无意中鼓励的唯一互动类型。每当我听到有人抱怨与他人的互动时，我常常会想起首席执行官教练杰里-科隆纳（Jerry Colonna） ³ 问他的客户的这个问题：

“How are you complicit in creating the conditions you say you don’t want?”
"你是如何同流合污地创造出你说不想要的条件的？"

Many of the interruptions you encounter are a direct result of how you respond to them. So any time you get an unwelcome and unimportant interruption, ask yourself what you did to encourage this behavior and what you could do to discourage it. Here are a few other common interruptions that people struggle with:
你遇到的许多干扰都是你如何应对的直接结果。因此，每当你遇到不受欢迎和不重要的打断时，问问自己是什么助长了这种行为，以及你可以做些什么来阻止它。以下是人们常遇到的其他几种干扰：

• After-hours emails - I’ve spoken to a lot of people who believe after-hours emails are a normal part of their work life. While that might be true for some people, after-hours emails are almost always a result of you replying to after-hours emails. When people know that you’re checking email after 5 p.m., they will send email after 5 p.m.; when people know that you’re not checking email after 5 p.m., you’ll get little or no email after 5 p.m. (or at least, the emails you do get won’t require immediate attention).
  下班后的电子邮件--我接触过很多人，他们认为下班后的电子邮件是工作生活中的正常现象。虽然这对某些人来说可能是正确的，但下班后邮件几乎总是你回复下班后邮件的结果。当人们知道你会在下午 5 点后查看电子邮件时，他们就会在下午 5 点后发送电子邮件；当人们知道你不会在下午 5 点后查看电子邮件时，你就会在下午 5 点后收到很少或没有电子邮件（或者至少，你收到的电子邮件不需要立即关注）。
• Meetings during blocked-off time - Some tech leads learn to block off time on their schedule for work or personal tasks, and yet when someone schedules a meeting during that time, they accept. And guess what? As soon as you do that, you’ve signaled that this type of interruption is appropriate and acceptable, and so that will happen more often. Once I kept my blocked-off calendar time sacred by rejecting meeting requests, I stopped receiving those meeting requests.
  在封锁的时间内开会--一些技术领导者学会在日程表上封锁工作或个人任务的时间，然而当有人在这段时间内安排会议时，他们就会接受。你猜怎么着？一旦你这样做了，你就表明这种类型的打扰是适当的、可接受的，因此这种情况会更频繁地发生。一旦我通过拒绝会议请求来保持我被封锁的日历时间的神圣性，我就不再收到那些会议请求了。
• Focus time interruptions - If you’re colocated with your team in an office, it’s helpful to set up focus time indicators that let people know that you’re not to be interrupted. Common indicators include the use of over-the-ear headphones, green/red post-its on cube walls, and green/red traffic lights above cubes. And of course, when you have your focus time indicator on, you need to dismiss people who try to interrupt. Protecting your focus time will gradually teach people to wait.
  专注时间被打断--如果你与团队同处一间办公室，那么设置专注时间指示器，让大家知道你不能被打断，是很有帮助的。常见的指示器包括使用耳罩式耳机、立方体墙壁上的绿色/红色便利贴以及立方体上方的绿色/红色交通指示灯。当然，当你的专注时间指示灯亮起时，你需要拒绝那些试图打断你的人。保护你的专注时间会让人们逐渐学会等待。

There are undoubtedly many more situations that you’ll run into where you’re encouraging the exact behavior you want to avoid. Can you avoid all interruptions? Of course not. There are legitimate interruptions, but there are far fewer of those than the ones that fill up your day and create needless stress.
毫无疑问，你还会遇到更多的情况，你鼓励的正是你想要避免的行为。你能避免所有的打断吗？当然不能。有些打断是合理的，但比起那些让你一天都忙得不可开交、给你带来不必要压力的打断要少得多。

Summary摘要

Tech leads need to learn to balance working on their own deliverables and helping out others on the team. That necessarily creates some friction because most tech leads want to prioritize the team’s needs over their own and so they either explicitly or implicitly encourage interruptions. While that may benefit the others on the team, it also means you don’t have the time to do your own work.
技术带头人需要学会在完成自己的交付任务和帮助团队其他人之间取得平衡。这必然会产生一些摩擦，因为大多数技术带头人都希望优先考虑团队的需求，而不是自己的需求，因此他们或明或暗地鼓励打断别人的工作。虽然这可能会让团队中的其他人受益，但也意味着你没有时间做自己的工作。

The good news is that you are 99% in control of the interruptions you receive. You do not have to accept the status quo when it’s not working for you. With every interaction you are training your colleagues on what interruptions are acceptable, and if you are getting interruptions that you don’t want, then you can change that by eliminating the positive feedback.
好消息是，你 99% 可以控制你所收到的干扰。如果现状不适合你，你也不必接受。在每一次互动中，你都在训练你的同事，让他们知道什么样的打断是可以接受的。如果你收到的打断是你不想要的，那么你可以通过消除积极反馈来改变这种状况。

Your teammates are capable adults who were hired to do a particular job, and while they might function better by constantly interrupting you, they will function just fine without interrupting you, too. You can encourage them to try to solve some problems on their own and get back to you if they truly get stuck, or let them know you aren’t available right now but will be available in a few hours and see what happens.
你的队友都是有能力的成年人，他们受雇来做特定的工作，虽然不断打断你可能会让他们更好地工作，但不打断你他们也能很好地工作。你可以鼓励他们自己尝试解决一些问题，如果真的遇到困难，再找你，或者让他们知道你现在没空，但几小时后会有空，看看会发生什么。

In part 2, I’ll discuss how to manage your calendar so as to minimize unwanted interruptions to your day.
在第二部分中，我将讨论如何管理你的日历，以尽量减少一天中不必要的干扰。